


The Space Between Us

by Teobi



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Flying, Friendship, Grandma's Cookies, Head of Security, Scott Being an Idiot, Thunderbird S, ThunderbirdsAreGo, Tracy Island, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 05:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4047415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teobi/pseuds/Teobi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During a routine perimeter check, Kayo and John find things to bond over. No spoilers. PURE FLUFF. I ship John/Kayo, whether it ever becomes canon or no.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Space Between Us

The Space Between Us

The sun flashed on the dark hull of Thunderbird S as the stealth craft banked around the perimeter of Tracy Island. At the controls was the lean and ponytailed Tanusha 'Kayo' Kyrano, Chief of Security and head of Covert Ops for International Rescue. Despite her young age it was a job Kayo took extremely seriously- she studied the flight instruments meticulously but also used her own eyes to scan the tilting horizon, watching for anomalies in the surrounding skies and suspicious shapes in the ocean below. There were whales and dolphins in the seas around the island and she had already seen a whale that day, hanging just under the surface like a giant underwater zeppelin. But as much as she loved to see whales, Kayo's breath always quickened when she spotted a dark mass- for one day it would not be a whale, but a spy submarine or other type of enemy submersible. The Hood was nothing if not relentless in his quest for world domination, but Kayo had inherited this family trait and was just as relentless in pursuing the course of justice and fighting for what was right.

"Tracy Island to Thunderbird S." Scott's cheery tone and blue-tinted hologram filled the cockpit, interrupting her scrutiny. "How's it going, Kayo?"

Kayo smiled to herself, rolling her hazel/green eyes. "The same as the last time you asked, ten minutes ago. Or was it eight?"

"Actually it was nine minutes and twenty three seconds, but let's not split hairs."

Kayo may have been looking out of the window, trying to concentrate on her job, but there was no mistaking the big, cheesy grin in Scott's voice. Her composure cracked and she laughed out loud. Because that was what Scott did- he egged you on until you laughed and he was quite, quite shameless about it.

"Scott, everything's fine. I promise you'll be the first to know if I spot anything."

"Great. How's the 'bird?"

Kayo pressed back in her seat as Thunderbird S skimmed the top of a rocky outcrop at 250mph. "Sexy as ever. Jealous?"

"Ha!" Scott's incredulous outburst rang out through the cockpit. "When you can go from 0 to 2,000 in two point five seconds we'll talk about who's jealous."

"Are we still talking about our 'birds?" Kayo injected a heavy dose of 'droll' into her words, then yawned to ram the point home.

" _I_ was," he retorted. "I don't know about you."

"All right, hot shot. You win. I can't keep up with your rapid style banter and rapier wit. Go and bother Gordon- that is, if he's awake yet."

Scott laughed. He muffled the comms and said something she couldn't make out to someone in the room with him. There was more muffled laughing, and then Scott took his hand off the 'mike'. "Seriously, though, Kayo. Everything working okay?"

Kayo rolled her eyes again. "Smooth as silk, I assure you. What do you think I was doing all morning in the silos with Brains and MAX, playing hopscotch? I was working on this baby." There was a noticeable silence from the other end. She broke it with a muttered, "I need to stop using sex and childbirth metaphors."

From the comms came a hearty and rather knowing chuckle. "Who can blame you," Scott teased. "That's one sleek craft you have there, and maybe I _am_ a tiny bit jealous. Reminds me of my Air Force days. There's just you and the plane and your razor sharp instincts, everything at your fingertips. It's the closest thing to actually flying like a bird. As much as I love One, she can't do that- she's neither small nor nimble enough."

"Aww, don't. I didn't bring any tissues."

Another small silence, then- "Brains says to look in the glove compartment."

Kayo's hand hovered over Scott's grinning holo. "I'm about to crush you with one blow," she warned. "And no- that is not 'my best pick up line'. See? I pre-empted you."

"I gotta work on some new material," said Scott, not in the least bit offended.

"Do so," she said, in as stern a tone as she could muster. "And stop bothering your Chief of Security while she's working."

"Working. Right."

"Keeping you and your corny jokes safe since 2060."

"Since two months ago."

"Hey. Has anything attacked the island in those two months?"

"No, but we've all almost been killed in plenty of other locations. Where were you then?"

Kayo spluttered indignantly. "You'd better hide when I get back," she told the shimmering figure hovering above the dash. "Here I am, doing my utmost to..."

"Kayo! I know. Okay, I pushed the wrong button there. I'm sorry- you're the best Head of Ops we've ever had. I just... well, I worry about you the same as I worry about these dipsticks. It's just what I do. Something could pick you out of the sky and we wouldn't even know if ... "

Scott's holo was suddenly interrupted by John's holo, blinking out of nowhere. Kayo's head jerked back in surprise.

"It's getting awfully crowded in here," she muttered, suddenly longing for the peaceful meanderings of a humpback whale in the turquoise depths below. At least they knew how to mind their own business!

"Kayo knows what she's doing, Scott. Besides, we'd know if something picked her off because I'd tell you."

"Really?" said Kayo, her eyes widening. "And how would _you_ know?"

"Erm, same as I know everything?"

Kayo tilted her head forward and fixed John with a glittering eye. "Please tell me you're not watching me the way you'd watch a small child playing near the road. I'm a professional pilot! Just like you! I have a brain and everything! I don't need someone walking behind me pulling on a set of reins!"

"Okay, I'm done," said Scott, quickly. "Great job you're doing, Kayo. Keep it up."

He saluted in a stiff, military fashion and then he was gone as fast as he showed up in the first place, leaving Kayo alone with John. Or at least, a reasonable facsimile thereof.

"I don't watch you like a child," said John, calmly. "I'm Space Monitor, remember? It's my job to observe."

"So what are you saying? My job is unnecessary? I'm wasting fuel by flying around the perimeter every day? That you can see so much more, and so much more clearly, than I can? Good grief, John. You're not God."

John's holo flickered. "Hey- no God debate, remember? The last one blew a fuse in EOS's logic centre."

"I was kidding. But look- it's like, I'm looking down on the island, and you're looking down on me looking down on the island. Why have two people doing the same job?"

"It's not exactly the same job, Kayo. I look at the big picture but you're observing the small details. You know, I actually showed up to stop Scott from starting on one of his, 'I don't want to see any of you get hurt' lectures. You should be thanking me instead of biting my head off."

Kayo sighed. She pulled her climbing 'bird into a tight bank to the right and continued on her security mission. Far below her, the shadow of Shadow cast by the glaring sun dipped in and out of tiny rippling waves.

"I'm sorry John, but I'm always a little on edge during these checks," she admitted. "I'm always prepared for the worst- an enemy plane or a torpedo from below. I just want to do the best I can. I know Scott likes to tease, but there are just some things I don't like being teased about."

_Like security. Like being as vigilant as possible because your uncle is The Hood and you know his ways, his mindset, better than anyone else. Because jovial Scott would soon stop teasing you if he ever found out your deadly secret._

She flew along in silence for a while, hardly noticing that John was still there- had not winked himself out of her personal space. That he was, in fact, still hovering quietly, keeping her company in his gentle, unassuming way.

"I saw a whale," she ventured, changing the topic completely. "About twenty minutes before Scott showed up. I was so busy deflecting his banter that I didn't get around to mentioning it to him, alas."

"See? Now that's the kind of thing I don't see from up here! Tell me about it."

Hearing the genuine excitement in John's voice, Kayo began to describe the behemoth she had witnessed in the depths. John's little blue image danced in the air before her as she worked the controls of her 'bird, soaring and climbing, then dipping and wheeling, trying to find the whale again so that she could show him. Not once did he interrupt her or try to be funny or clever or make her brain ache from trying to come up with a witty retort in time.

"It might even have been a blue whale," she said, peering out of each window, scrutinizing each display holo. "It was huge!"

"A blue whale, huh? That would be something, especially considering how close they came to extinction earlier on in the century."

Kayo manipulated the 'bird around the island, but the whale was no longer anywhere to be seen.

"It's gone. I should have taken an image. Sorry."

"No worries," said John, with one of his beautiful, forgiving smiles. "Next time."

" _If_ there's a next time."

John blinked, cat like. "Why wouldn't there be a next time?"

Kayo remained silent, watching the island like a hawk.

John reached out a blue hand towards her, but of course there was no physical connection. "Kayo, you do a fine job. Nobody could handle perimeter checks as calmly and patiently as you do. Imagine Alan having to fly round and around on virtually the same course all morning. He can't even clean up space trash without freaking out and almost getting himself killed," he added, thinking back to the mine that nearly latched onto Thunderbird Three. "You're the best we've got. No kidding."

Kayo allowed a real, genuine, non- defensive smile to grace her lips. "Thank you, John," she said, tipping her head in one of her zen like nods. "I appreciate you telling me. I do my best, even though I get precious little thanks."

"Huh. You think _you_ get precious little thanks? The first thing _I_ get when I come home is..."

"A plate of Grandma's cookies," Kayo finished in a sing-song voice alongside him.

They both laughed together, the Head of Covert Ops and the Space Monitor, and knew that they had connected on some level.

"They'd be lost without us," Kayo muttered, picking out the dot of a distant frigate bird with her own eyes rather than the bank of technology arrayed across the dashboard.

"They would," said John with another mesmerising smile. "And that's not even an understatement."

Thunderbird S banked steeply, this time with her nose pointing earthwards. Kayo's perimeter check was over and she was heading home. But as she reached up to begin flipping switches and powering down her engines, John's patient little blue figure made her pause in her actions. She cast another look out of the window at Tracy Island looming up in front of her, and bit the inside of her lip. Suddenly the very last thing she wanted was to return to the fray, the nonstop bantering; Scott pressing for a report, Gordon's pranks, Alan casting puppy eyes at her. There was Virgil, of course, but ... not right now. She wasn't ready to go home right now. Not on such a glorious day, not with so much huge open space to play in. Not when John was gazing benignly at her with that beautiful face, making her feel totally at ease with herself.

"John?" Her voice was slightly hesitant, as though she were about to ask him a question for which there was only one correct answer, one make or break decision.

"Hmm?" His reply was a sort of low murmur in his throat, as though he knew there was a loaded question coming- that everything from that point forward depended on how he answered it.

"How would you like to go whale watching? I'm sure Scott's got everything covered at home, and to be honest I'm really not in the mood for even _one_ of Grandma's Foot cookies right now."

"Kayo, you read my mind! I swear I was just thinking about that whale you mentioned, and whether it really was a blue one or not. I mean, I know there are humpbacks around but, blue whales, _man_! I'd love to see one of those!"

"Well! All righty then! Let's do it!"

A very relieved Kayo pulled her hovering fingers away from the switches she had been about to flip. She relaxed her arms and shoulders, eased back in her seat and brought Thunderbird S out of her descent. John's eagerness to see whales was catching, and suddenly there was nothing she wanted more than to find a bonafide blue whale and have John Tracy tell her all about them. As the craft wheeled away from the island, Kayo looked over at John and winked.

She actually winked.

_He may not think he's a God, sitting up there in his little observation room while the rest of us mortals muddle along down here, but I think he's pretty damned close_.

END

**Author's Note:**

> My neighbour began playing 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie while I wrote this. Talk about synchronicity.
> 
> Also, be thankful I didn't let punning get the better of me and call this fic 'Whale Meet Again.' It nearly happened!


End file.
